Washington College, minus 10 lacrosse players, including seven starters who were suspended for the season last week, was overwhelmed by No. 9 Johns Hopkins, 22-5, yesterday before 3,500 at Homewood Field.

The Shoremen (0-1), who play in National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III, were no match for a Division I Johns Hopkins team that led, 8-3, at the end of the first quarter and 13-4 at the half.

The only time the game was in doubt was after Washington College's Jed Cronin scored to put the Shoremen ahead, 3-2, with 11 minutes, 11 seconds left in the first quarter. But then the Blue Jays (1-1) scored six straight goals to take away the momentum.

"I thought it was important for us to get out front early, which we did," said Shoremen coach Terry Corcoran, who suspended the 10 players because of a preseason drinking incident in a van in North Carolina. "But after that, we couldn't control the ball on offense. There were about 15 ground balls that we needed but didn't win.

"It's been a long week," said Corcoran. "I think the kids were a little tight. What's important about this type of game is the exposure. It will help us along the way, and we have a long way to go. We're going to get better."

The Blue Jays showed some improvement from last week's 15-10 loss to No. 6 Princeton. When Johns Hopkins fell behind Princeton midway through the game, the Blue Jays got out of their offense and started forcing shots with a one-on-one style of play.

When they got behind Washington College yesterday, the Blue Jays stayed in their motion offense and hurled 57 shots at goalkeeper Dave Slomkowski, who generally is considered the best goalkeeper in the country.

But hardly anyone could have handled the pressure put on by Johns Hopkins yesterday. Thirteen players scored for the Blue Jays on just about every scoring situation.

Midfielder Adam Wright had five goals, and attackman Jeff Wills had three. Blue Jays attackman Matt Panetta, who was left out of the offense against Princeton, had six assists.

"This was a lot better than the last time out," said first-year Johns Hopkins coach Tony Seaman.

"Last week when we got behind we panicked. This time we were able to control the tempo and we continued to run our offense," Seaman said. "We really stayed with our game plan. We shot the ball well and this time it was from 10 yards out, instead of 14."

Seaman, though, did not want Johns Hopkins fans to get to ecstatic. He even seemed a little disturbed about the team's preseason ranking causing unnecessary pressure.

"This was a tense week," said Seaman. "There was a lot of pressure on us at Hopkins. Obviously, Washington College is not Princeton. But's it's going to take some time to build this program. This is not a knock of Zimmerman [former Johns Hopkins coach Don Zimmerman] because he left some outstanding players here and I wished I had some of his wins.

"But we were ranked No. 4 at the beginning of the year, yet Towson beat the heck out of us in the fall, and they're ranked behind us," said Seaman. "I've been around for a long time, and we're nowhere near the top four. We're around 12 or 13th now, and by May, we're going to be better. Until then, let us prove ourselves on the field, not just because we wear the blue and gray from Johns Hopkins."